Wow $900K plus land? I had no idea houses were so expensive to build. Sobering post.

Ramjet99:

 

Wow $900K plus land? I had no idea houses were so expensive to build. Sobering post.

 

Counterpoint. Rolleston, 210m2 (including 70m2 garage), basic single story construction with middle of the range specs. $360k+land (+25k driveways and paths and landscaping, and +$10k on owner supplied appliances (oven/cooktop/dishwasher etc)

You can spend as much as you want but I guarantee there's no need to spend $900k on a reasonable sized build.

Cheers - N

yumcimil:

 

mattwnz:

 

Insanekiwi:

 

yumcimil:

 

We've been trying to do some renovations - dividing existing house into two, and redoing each half a bit. Costs are *very* high, courtesy of the post-Kaikoura quake rebuild. Estimate for us to extend by ~ 50m^2, and reorganise the interior was $780,000, plus architect's fees and consents.

 

Our requested budget was $350,000, so we're quite angry with the architect, who has run us $25,000 and counting.

 

 

 

 

That is crazy...$780k for reno! The architect must gone crazy or been completely out of market for a while. Our quote was about 15% higher than expected, but probably due to inflation over one year for construction has been that...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inflation is only around 2% at the moment. So someone is creaming it. 

 

 

Well, the reason we were so hacked off is that there had been a lot of discussion from us saying "Uh, won't that be really expensive?", with the reply of "no, no, it's surprisingly cheap"

 

I would be pretty hacked off too if the builder's quote was that much. Did you look for different quotes / employ a quantity surveyor to see if the quote is appropriate?

Unfortunately, $1700/m2 is something I haven't heard of in Wellington. Lowest I have seen recently is $2500/m2 with a reasonable quality on a 250m2 house + land. That person did a lot of work on buying supplies when things were on great sale, stored it at their parents house for > 6 months etc. 

I couldn't believe how expensive a reasonable house would be to meet a code of compliance. Obviously for me it's the hill that is causing the price to go up with the foundation but I guess that's the price you pay for the view...

No builder recommendation so far means that this post hasn't been successful so far to have someone to give me a quote again! :(

Insanekiwi:

 

yumcimil:

 

mattwnz:

 

Insanekiwi:

 

yumcimil:

 

We've been trying to do some renovations - dividing existing house into two, and redoing each half a bit. Costs are *very* high, courtesy of the post-Kaikoura quake rebuild. Estimate for us to extend by ~ 50m^2, and reorganise the interior was $780,000, plus architect's fees and consents.

 

Our requested budget was $350,000, so we're quite angry with the architect, who has run us $25,000 and counting.

 

 

 

 

That is crazy...$780k for reno! The architect must gone crazy or been completely out of market for a while. Our quote was about 15% higher than expected, but probably due to inflation over one year for construction has been that...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inflation is only around 2% at the moment. So someone is creaming it. 

 

 

Well, the reason we were so hacked off is that there had been a lot of discussion from us saying "Uh, won't that be really expensive?", with the reply of "no, no, it's surprisingly cheap"

 

 

 

 

I would be pretty hacked off too if the builder's quote was that much. Did you look for different quotes / employ a quantity surveyor to see if the quote is appropriate?

 

Unfortunately, $1700/m2 is something I haven't heard of in Wellington. Lowest I have seen recently is $2500/m2 with a reasonable quality on a 250m2 house + land. That person did a lot of work on buying supplies when things were on great sale, stored it at their parents house for > 6 months etc. 

 

I couldn't believe how expensive a reasonable house would be to meet a code of compliance. Obviously for me it's the hill that is causing the price to go up with the foundation but I guess that's the price you pay for the view...

 

No builder recommendation so far means that this post hasn't been successful so far to have someone to give me a quote again! :(

 

 

 

My brother had an architecturally designed 260+ sqm house about 18 months  ago in the Wairarapa(which is in the Wellington region). Although they didn't tell me the exact figures, I believe it worked out at about $1800 per sqm. I believe they got 4 quotes, and some were significantly more. I designed it for them, and it was clad in vertical colour steel and cedar. It was quite a simple structure, and 2.4 and 2.7 m ceilings, and used trusses. They did buy in some things themselves, but I didn't think building in the wairarapa would be cheaper than Wellington city itself. Especially as Wellington has additional competition in the building supplies market, like Bunnings. 

I am not sure how close quality surveyors figure are, compared to competitive quotes. I have had some done and they have been well out, where the builders quotes were a lot lower.  They will want to be conservative, so it is likely that it will be a lot higher than a competitive quote.

I would suggest getting a quote from some builders out in the hutt, as the builders out there may have lower overheads compared to one based in the city

mattwnz:

 

Insanekiwi:

 

yumcimil:

 

mattwnz:

 

Insanekiwi:

 

yumcimil:

 

We've been trying to do some renovations - dividing existing house into two, and redoing each half a bit. Costs are *very* high, courtesy of the post-Kaikoura quake rebuild. Estimate for us to extend by ~ 50m^2, and reorganise the interior was $780,000, plus architect's fees and consents.

 

Our requested budget was $350,000, so we're quite angry with the architect, who has run us $25,000 and counting.

 

 

 

 

That is crazy...$780k for reno! The architect must gone crazy or been completely out of market for a while. Our quote was about 15% higher than expected, but probably due to inflation over one year for construction has been that...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inflation is only around 2% at the moment. So someone is creaming it. 

 

 

Well, the reason we were so hacked off is that there had been a lot of discussion from us saying "Uh, won't that be really expensive?", with the reply of "no, no, it's surprisingly cheap"

 

 

 

 

I would be pretty hacked off too if the builder's quote was that much. Did you look for different quotes / employ a quantity surveyor to see if the quote is appropriate?

 

Unfortunately, $1700/m2 is something I haven't heard of in Wellington. Lowest I have seen recently is $2500/m2 with a reasonable quality on a 250m2 house + land. That person did a lot of work on buying supplies when things were on great sale, stored it at their parents house for > 6 months etc. 

 

I couldn't believe how expensive a reasonable house would be to meet a code of compliance. Obviously for me it's the hill that is causing the price to go up with the foundation but I guess that's the price you pay for the view...

 

No builder recommendation so far means that this post hasn't been successful so far to have someone to give me a quote again! :(

 

 

 

 

 

 

My brother had an architecturally designed 260+ sqm house about 18 months  ago in the Wairarapa(which is in the Wellington region). Although they didn't tell me the exact figures, I believe it worked out at about $1800 per sqm. I believe they got 4 quotes, and some were significantly more. I designed it for them, and it was clad in vertical colour steel and cedar. It was quite a simple structure, and 2.4 and 2.7 m ceilings, and used trusses. They did buy in some things themselves, but I didn't think building in the wairarapa would be cheaper than Wellington city itself. Especially as Wellington has additional competition in the building supplies market, like Bunnings. 

 

 

 

I am not sure how close quality surveyors figure are, compared to competitive quotes. I have had some done and they have been well out, where the builders quotes were a lot lower.  They will want to be conservative, so it is likely that it will be a lot higher than a competitive quote.

 

 

 

I would suggest getting a quote from some builders out in the hutt, as the builders out there may have lower overheads compared to one based in the city

 

That sounds like a great job - although now; it would probably cost around $2070/m2 but still good deal none the less especially for an architecturally designed house. I was looking at similar cladding options; colorsteel/eurostyle all around including the roof with some cedar/timber accents. I believe our house is also reasonably simple to construct, but it's the foundation that will cost a bit. 

Thanks for the recommendations; so far I only have received a quote from David Reid (Waikanae based). Are you an architect yourself?